Combe Down Litter Pick

In July local resident Tim Pentreath emailed local councillors to complain about the poor street cleansing in Combe Down, but this was not just an ordinary complaint! Tim also offered to do something about it.

The upshot of this was that on 19th July 2006, Tim and a group of 10 of his friends and contacts and both local councillors turned up in the Firs and using kit supplied by the council, spent a couple of hours picking up litter in the village.

Tim had divided the village up into 'picking routes' and each 'picker' was armed with a 'picking stick' and bag - you can see from the picture the amount of litter collected - 6 bags.

The litter pick revealed to me the ingrained dirt and detritus in the gutters, built up over the years - Paul, a volunteer from Hawthorn Grove, and I did Westerleigh Road and Combe Road between us.

To get the gutters and pavements really clean, a 'deep' clean with brush and shovel is needed. I will be talking to Trevor Cummings, the officer who manages the street cleansing operation at the council to attempt to get a 'deep' clean in Combe Down. But of course this would not be needed if people did not drop litter in the first place!

Well done Tim and his gang of helpers. In a strange sort of way I found the exercise to be quite satisfying, but then I am a waste and recycling anorak!